Thread: HOLY PAIN BATMAN! - Newbie needing some advice.

Ok I’m a complete idiot with this stuff and a newbie at that so please bare with me. Also I hope that my sense of humor doesn’t put you on the floor with incredible abdominal muscle pain and uncontrollable tear management. As I said I’m completely new to this stuff (this stuff being anything to do with fitness). I am 36 years old and have been overweight ever since puberty. While a kid in high school and college I was VERY active with lots of running/biking and sports but I could never lose weight or gain muscle mass. Sure my diet was NOT ideal but it really wasn’t too bad either. My buddies ate like pigs compared to me and were in relatively decent shape. Meanwhile I might have had some tone muscles here and there at best and at rare times but never any real strength or size. Once I was done with college, I pretty much gave up on ever getting in shape…. until now.

My doctor recently discovered that I have low T or low testosterone which has put me into metabolic syndrome making it very difficult to lose weight and gain muscle. He said that a normal T count for a guy my age should be around 600-700 (I have no idea what the unit of measure is) and that my count was 120. A guy's normal T production picks up around puberty and mine didn’t. The side effects of this are many. Luckily I only suffered from a slow metabolism and poor muscle strength (thank the Lord). So my doc prescribed a hormone therapy a few months ago that seems to be kicking in. I have LOTS more energy and the pounds are starting to come off.

So now that I’m in a state of progress with the possibility of success, I’m now going to the gym every other day to hit the weights and do some cardio all while watching what I eat; my doc said to follow the South beach diet . I started the diet about 3 weeks ago (10lbs down already J) and I started the gym this last Sunday. My brother-in-law (who has been lifting on and off for the past 10 years) is walking me through the steps of a workout routine. On my 2nd trip to the gym this last tuesday we really concentrated on upper body strength. I had NO idea just how weak my biceps really are. I thought I was average at best and really didn’t have much trouble picking up a heavy weight now and then but to do reps with it was a different story altogether. I thought I would be do a curl of 140lbs or so just fine. So I started to load up a bar and my brother-in-law (Mike) had this look on his face as if he knew I was about to learn a lesson. LOL After 1 curl I could not do another. So Mike set me with just 40lbs and told me to do 2 sets of 15 reps. By the time I got to the end of the 2nd set I was really struggling. Meanwhile there were all these muscle bound guys with no necks looking at me like “who brought the girl?” or “I didn’t know that a women could grow a goatee.” Seriously I was afraid that they were going to get out a pink set of hand bells and ask if I needed a spotter.

So today is going to be my third trip to the gym and my arms are still KILLING ME! Other muscle groups from my 1 and 2nd trip had similar pain but recovered by the morning of the 2nd day. Today (2 days after my last workout) my left bicep has a knot about the size of a large marble and whenever I put my arms down to my side I’m in a fair amount of pain. My co-workers are getting a laugh out of the occasional look of on my face as if I’m about to pass a kidney stone. I know that I should have some pain for a day or two after a workout but this is VERY intense and its worse than yesterday. I also know that considering that I haven’t done any weight training for at least the last 12 years that I can expect a slower muscle recovery time for a few weeks.

My question is: If my muscles have not recovered and are still in considerable pain, should I wait before I hit the weights again or should I just get back at it. Keep in mind that I’m 36 and not a spring chicken anymore. I’m inclined to just stick to cardio today. Also is there any shakes or anything diet wise that would help with the muscle recovery? Keep in mind that I’m on the South Beach diet and I need to keep carbs low for weight loss. Just about everything I’ve seen shake wise has ton of carbs. I'm already drinking lots of water.

Thanks for your help

^^^ good advice and for gods sake stop worrying about what meatheads at the gym think.As far as shakes go a whey protein isolate will be good for recovery without extra cals or too many carbs(you need a few carbs post workout).